Hi everyone,

Would appreciate some advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

It's 10 years since I took piano lessons- and completed Grade 8 Royal Irish Academy of Music exam. Well I say completed - I passed with 2 marks to spare but rushed entering for the exam because I was starting my final year at school and wanted to concentrate on school exams.

I would love to go back to playing and someday take the grade exams again - AB this time! Would anyone have suggestions as to how to start over - what level should I initially be aiming at? I never did any studies when I was learning - I've heard Hanon mentioned here - would that get my fingers moving again?

Going to lessons isn't an option at the moment so am looking for a way to ease myself back into it and maybe start lessons again in a year or so.

Thanks in advance!
Orla

I restarted last February after grade 5 at the age of 13 and a 34 year gap, so I think that puts me in a similar position if not worse off. From what you say, you seem to be planning to do much what I did:

I started committing to daily practice of at least an hour, usually 2 and often much more. I began with scales and arpeggios and stuff I knew was both a challenge (to me, then) and good to listen to: Debussy la fille aux cheveux de lin (which I played at a Forums adult learners concert last July), a Chopin Waltz, a Joplin Rag and 3 of the Bach 2 part Inventions. I also did Hanon book 1 daily for a while until I could do all 20 exercises at full speed without a break and yes, it got my fingers and forearms going nicely (The first time I tried it it did 3 exercises at half speed and my forearms seized up! However, once I had some Inventions (1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14) & Sinfonias (3, 7, 11) I could play they make much more musical warm ups and are at least as useful technically, so I no longer play Hanon (except rarely).

In May I started lessons with a good teacher (recommended by word of mouth, half an hours drive away, each way). She sorted out the problems I didn't know I was having with the Bach Inventions and the Debussy, she started me on the Sinfonias and she gave me some Beethoven, a Chopin Nocturne and another Debussy Prelude to be going on with (not all at once!).

When I started with her I told her that my long term aims were to be able to play the Chopin etudes and Ballades, the Liszt Paganini etudes (specifically La Campanella) and the Etudes Symphonique by Schumann. I think she thought I was nuts. I told her that I realized that this level of virtuosity may be beyond me, but that I would like to try. In the medium term I said that I would quite like to get some of the post grade-8 diplomas such as Dip.ABRSM and LRSM but in the shorter term a good starting point might be to work towards grade 8. I told her I didn't want to take grade 8 unless she thought there was a chance of a merit or preferably a distinction.

To start with she thought I was going to be at least a waster (not appreciating the magnitude of the task, not practicing, missing lessons etc.) but she allowed me a trial period of half hour lessons. At the end of the trial she expressed herself pleasantly surprised and moved me to weekly one-hour lessons. I think I will be doing grade 8 in June/July.

Over the year (just over, now) since I restarted I have found that the pieces I'm working on don't seem to be any better played, it's just that they're much more complicated (e.g. the 4 part Fugue for Grade 8 - rather more complex than the 2 part inventions, which now seem so simple!). Above all, I've enjoyed it. I still am enjoying it. If I wasn't I might give up but I might just persevere in the expectation of better times ahead! I have every expectation that my journey, wherever it may lead me, will continue to be an enjoyable one, at least most of the time.

Have fun!

P.S. Along the way I have also continued to play and teach chess and have started flute lessons, and I haven't given up the day job yet! I think my piano teacher may have been right the first time - I'm nuts!

I started again about the same time as Robodoc ... partly through his bad influence!!

My previous experience was: started playing age 12 going on 13, Grade 8 in 1972, age 17, and Associate Diploma in 1985 age 30 (or was it 1984, or '83 - I don't know without checking). Unlike Robodoc I had never completely stopped playing. I always managed a few hours per week - mostly poking around in Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Debussy compositions, and playing popular songs - and only a 22 year gap since I last had lessons - but even so, when I restarted I doubt that I would have been able to pass Grade 8.

At first I thought the LRSM diploma would be a challenge to provide motivation, but after a few months knocking off the rust I realised that I am not much interested in paper qualifications - I just want to play as well as possible, and set myself a somewhat tougher challenge - to reach the standard of a professional concert pianist in 5 to 10 years. I believe the target is somewhere over the far side of the standard you need for FRSM so it is not a trivial goal.

I moved to Utrecht for a job here, and found an excellent classical teacher who has diagnosed my weaknesses and put me on a diet of Bach Preludes and Fugues, Moszkowski Studies and Chopin Etudes to fix them. Alongside that my musical education continues with excruciatingly detailed attention to a single Beethoven sonata.

Far from ridiculing me, after a couple of months she told me that she was very pleased with me, that I am a very quick learner, play with a beautiful tone, and that when (when ... not if!) I have mastered two or three recital programmes I would be ready to give a recital tour. (Head swells a little ... ) Of course the income would never replace the day job, so I am not giving it up just yet! There are many supremely capable pianists living in dire poverty - and there are 12 year olds - no make that nine year olds - that play better than me (... and shrinks back to normal size).

I also attend a class in jazz piano which helps with relaxation and confidence and in understanding harmony.

I now practice an average of four or more hours per day, and spend further time listening to music, annotating scores, reading up on music history and composer's lives, and studying counterpoint, harmony, and form. Basically I am compressing two lives into one - full time computer programmer during the day, almost full time piano student evenings and weekends.

Unlike Robodoc I have not taken up a second instrument (third in his case - he is a good guitarist already). Whenever I am tempted by a violin or a guitar or some voice training I remind myself that it would just take time away from the piano.

Also I no longer play or teach chess - which used to be my main avocation - I'd rather be practicing piano, and my voracious appetite for scientific books, history books, art history, world politics etc. has also gone.

And I have never been happier in my life!!

Good luck. I am off to practice!

I had a 20+ year gap in lessons, but never stopped playing. I didn't have grade 8 so spent a couple of years working up to that. I'm nowhere near as dedicated as Robodoc and Mad Tom! I then shifted to organ with the same teacher and am working towards grade 6. I somehow started teaching the piano along the way and am working towards the CTABRSM and teaching diploma. ALong the way I gave up the day job for unrelated reasons and now work part time as a piano/theory teacher and accompanist. It is relaxing and fun and I'm sure you will enjoy playing again too. Why not just enjoy playing/browsing through as much repertoire as you can - no need to get too heavily stuck into Hanon and the like, just yet...(ducks for cover)

I had a huge gap; I was playing Grade 8 pieces when I got interested in other things, like the opposite ###, so it all went to the dogs till my first child was of an age to start playing, and that's when I got hooked again. What I did was poke around for a while on my own and then I felt I needed a goal - and ended up with more than one - one after the other - and it was great! I was approached to teach along the way, and have never looked back since. But I was probably similar to you in that I was on my own for about a year after rekindling the interest. I wouldn't backtrack if I were you. By all means aim for AB Grade 8 to see where you're at now, but I bet you'll find that with a commitment now that may not have been there in the past, you'll go further than you think!

Did somebody mention Hanon?
Life's too short!

Thanks for all the advice guys. I really admire your commitment to achieve after such gaps. Think I will get the AB Grade 6 or so book just to try and get back into it and dig out some old stuff and see if I can remember how this all works!! Would definitley like to potter around for a bit and maybe take grade8 in a year or two......

I'll leave Hanon for now then perhaps!!

Any other comments appreciated. Thanks again.

Hi Orla.

I started teaching myself the piano when I was about 12 and started lessons at school in the later half of my year 8. I had lessons for roughly 7 years. I did grade 8 in 2002 and got 101 so a very poor pass. I have hardly touched the piano since I stopped lessons, but now that I'm teaching I try to accompany my students in their lessons which is fun. I get some grade exam accompaniment work and have recently have a wave of inspiration and decided that I'd like to start up lessons again. So just today I have been in touch with a very good pianist and teacher in my area who can take me on. I am looking at lessons in a completely different way to how I would have done in my A level days. I am hoping that my new teacher will be able to correct what I believe is a poor technique and lack of knowledge of a good technique. I am hoping to become more stylistically aware on the piano - something that I never achieved when I had lessons previously. I am wanting to improve my sight reading so that I can try out new pieces with my students without having to madly practise them first. I have also suggested a grade 8 retake and possibly a diploma at some point, but time will tell. For the moment I just want to have fun playing again and trying out pieces I always thought were out of my reach before. In the long term I may even be able to offer accompanying high grade exams and piano tuition - although only if I am happy that I have a good technique.

For the moment I've been testing my sight reading and have been using a couple of old grade 6 exam books. I've found that I haven't been playing too badly considering the big gap in practice. My advice would be to dig out the music you've got and have a go through to see how you do.

Good luck and I hope you have fun. Lucid

Coming back to music via singing and then piano has been one of the best decisions of my life despite the 40 year gap. I spent 6 months doing NOTHING but Hanon for 1-2 hours a day to get my fingers going (and they are still not where I want them) but it was great - really useful. Although I don't spend much time on Hanon now, I keep coming back. Got a wonderful piano teacher who also doubted that I would practice/persist/make progress etc but is now convinced that I am being serious. The more I learn the more I realise how much I still have to learn but I am enjoying it all.
So - go for it and you will be telling this type of story further on.

I restarted piano after about a ten year gap after G8 too, children and various moves had intervened!
I'm very glad I restarted with a teacher though. It took hardly any time to get the fingers moving but any bad habits and mistakes were still there as large as life! We started off on the Pathetique which I was very excited about. This teacher is fantastic at teaching technique through repertoire, finding the best fingering and movements for every phrase; he was very happy that I knew so many scales etc from the grading system which they don't have here in Germany but has never insisted on me practising technique in isolation; very occasionally he produces a quick excercise on some point or other. I knew I was very stiff and tentative at the piano, and one of his biggest compliments after about a year was something along the lines of "now you look as if you're in charge of the piano and not the other way round.!"
If you can't have a teacher straight away, I would suggest doing a lot of sightreading because once you start back working on pieces somehow they take up all available time ... Also, by sightreading you won't ingrain any bad habits. And another difference for me on restarting was that I had in the interim listened to a lot more piano music and become much more aware of different interpretations. It really got my fingers itching to try new stuff! And rather than always trying to learn something more technically challenging, I enjoy the challenge of trying to play "easier" pieces with more depth and musicality.
Have fun!

Just a thought; do you know about the LCM Leisure Play exams? These are graded exams but you just play repertoire, 4 pieces I think and no scales, aurals etc. There's also TCL performance certificates as an alternative.

I would find that attitude in a prospective teacher so intimidating.
I am seroius about learning (although not exactly in such a full on way as Robodoc and Mad Tom) but i do take time to learn things, they don't come as easily to me as they seem to with many people of a similar level. I also think that there are low confidence issues which don't help and so this sort of response from a prospective teacher would really scare me witless.
I would be concerned that they might only be prepared to tolerate their own ideas on what is acceptable progress and afraid that I wouldn't be able to match up to those sort of expectations.

Me too: I only found out afterwards that she thought I might not be serious in this way. I was (and am) very grateful for her professional attitude and that she gave me the benefit of the doubt without letting on that she had the doubt in the first place. The trial period is fairly standard and I had no problem with that - after all, however good a teacher she may have been and however serious a student I may have been it was always possible we simply wouldn't get on! It pains me to admit it, but there are a few misguided people who seem not to like me!!

Well i went to my local music shop during lunchbreak a few days ago and had a look at the Hanon book 1 (looks crazy!) and also and a flick thorugh the AB piano exam books. I thought grade 3 might be do-able and grade 4 might be a stretch and felt so disheartened! I know it's been a very long time but it's worrying how foreign it all looks!!

I think the first thing I will do at the weekend is get out some of my old music and see how I get on with that. I've been learning violin for the past few years and passed Grade3 at Christmas, but I would really like to have a balance of violin, piano and theory (which I'm working on but have taken no grades yet).

Thanks again for all your suggestions!

Hi Orla,
Nice to see someone else on this side of the pond! (I'm in Belfast)
I was pretty much in the same boat as you, I just restarted my piano lessons in September 07 after a ten year break, I had done up to AB Grade 6. I got my piano the previous December but as I couldn't start lessons until Sept I just got out all my old exam pieces and other bits and pieces of music to see what I could remember!
I was actually surprised, I wasn't as bad as I thought I would be and even the scales seemed to be still lurking in my memory somewhere! I was lucky enough to get my old teacher back
Anyway I am planning to do my G7 next month so fingers crossed...

Am ok with the pieces and scales I think, sightreading not so hot but am finding the Aural tests the hardest...

Good luck!!

Lucy

Hello Orla,

I just started my piano-lessons again after 30 years! I re-took Grade 4 just a couple of weeks ago, as I felt I needed to go back as a refresher. I had picked up so many bad habits over the years. I was doing my Grade 5 when my circumstances changed and I had to leave. I 've never heard of Hanon but before I took lessons I revised all my scales, appeggios etc. Anyway, I wish you all the best and would say definitely go for it! As I'm not as far as you I can only offer encouragement.

Lauramay

I got to Grade 4 when I was about 14, but I always just scraped through the exams, and have never been a gifted musician. In addition, I didn't practice all that much when I was a kid. I am 27 now and have recently started having lessons again. It requires serious effort on my part to make any progress, but I am trying!

Welcome to the forum.
Do take a look at the forum events board in the General Music section.
It's a great way to meet other people and share your music.

Thanks for the welcome, I will take a look.

I think you are very wise to backtrack a bit. I returned after 40 years and decided to re-take grade 8, which I had passed aged 18. With hindsight (always a great thing!) I should have gone back to around grade 5 or 6 and worked up from there. I did pass the grade 8, but it took the best part of two years (I did play other things besides the three pieces!) and I would have been better off building up repertoire and technique gradually. We're all different with regards to learning speeds and innate abilities - with the best will in the world we can't all be robodocs and Mad Toms, and shouldn't compare ourselves with them.

I think it is easier if you start a couple of grades lower and gradually work your way back into it.

I'm in similar situation, Orla. I restarted last year after about a 15-year gap (and zero music making in between). At the beginning I just worked on my own playing scales and easier pieces e.g. the Bach Anna Magdalena book and 2 part inventions, Satie, Bartok Mikrokosmos (even pop songs as I figured I needed to get my sightreading skills back fast).

The first few months were quite tough and but once I got most of my "basics" back and got used to playing/practising again, I found progress much quicker. I started having lessons again after 7-8 months and now roughly back to my previous standard.

PS> I am not keen on retaking Grade 8 (espeically with the aurals etc), though, so my teacher suggested looking at the TG Performer's Certificate (which is a half-hour recital with no technical works) just as something to work towards; maybe you'd find it interesting.

I took the TG First Concert Certificate last November and found this a useful one to work towards (my current teacher put me back to easier pieces in order to work on technique). It's pitched at grade 5-6 standard. The Performer's Certificate is aimed at post grade 8 but pre-diploma and is a lot more challenging!

I did G3 Piano, 5 Guitar and 5 Theory in my Twenties (now 46), I stopped taking exams as I was playing in bands (Jazz Guitar mostly) every night and weekends. Gave that up and started serious piano lessons again two years ago, got G4 and G5 and am trying to find a teacher now to get me through G6-8.
Wish I'd kept it up but you can't turn back time. Good to see I'm not alone.

Hello Joe and welcome to the forum.
Have you checked the events board yet. It's a great way to meet others and play among friendly faces.
There's an Adult Learners concert not too far from you in July and applications are open now so do hve a looki.

(OK....Can't blame me for trying.... )

It must be daunting to return to learning an instrument after a gap of several years. But when I recall my progress so far, I suppose I fall into this category too.

I dropped piano lessons when I was 10 years old after only one year, then took them up again 15 years later. I re-started at Grade 3 level, and I'm now taking Grade 8 this year. But things like studies and exercises have never featured in my lessons or my practicing, so Hanon and czerny are both alien to me. Having said that, I recently bought an AB collection of grade 7 'studies' by various composers, and they are really quite taxing - certainly stretched my abilities to the limit!

So all I can say is - keep playing for pleasure as much as you can, but if you want a benchmark of where your playing is at, then consider taking an exam (grade 8 or perhaps Performance Assessment) to get an independent opinion.

The First Concert Certificate and Performers Certificate offered by Trinity & Guildhall (mentioned above)sound really interesting too - might consider them myself...

Wow - I can't believe how dedicated some of you guys are - esp Robodoc and Tom do you have time to eat?

I took grade 3 before I gave up round about the age of 11/12. Twenty something years later I decided to start again! I started last January and took Grade 4 in November. I practise about 20 minutes a day (I know, I know but it's all I can manage with a toddler to look after and a PhD to work towards!) Maybe one day I will get to Grade 8 but I think it will be a long time coming....I don't care, I'm enjoying the journey

If I were you I'd re-start from a lower level, say Grade 5 and attempt to retrain gradually. In this way your skills will come back little by little, quite painlessly above all, and you will also enjoy the achievements in a less frustrating way than if you resumed from q high standard. What you learnt is all there, it just takes time to help it surface again. At 51 years of age, I believe in everything taking place step by step ... it is more enjoyable, longer-lasting and also less discouarging!
John

That's what counts!

I'm in exactly the same position and that's one of the reasons I've joined this board - to get other people's views.

However, my question is more about if it's possible to re-sit exams. For example, I did my Grade 1 Theory ten years ago when I was 9 ( ) but now since I haven'y kept up with it I've forgotten it all.

Now/after uni I want to get really serious about practicing and taking exams, and I'm thinking the best option at the moment is to start from the beginning again, has anyone tried this? I also just scraped through the exams so I would much prefer it to have another go and give it a better shot now I'm more used to the whole exam process.

I think this is very wise.

At least the intention and sincerity behind it is, though in truth you never can start again. With the best will in the world you can't forget what you already know. But you can revisit basic skills and techniques, and refine them, eliminate bad habits, fill in the gaps in your understanding, and learn any of fundamentals that you somehow missed out first time round.

I learnt the piano while at school - gave up at 18 having not quite gotten to grade 3. Restarted after 8 years and in 6 months I'm playing grade 3 pieces. I improved fast but now just feel like I've hit a brick wall - More than one note in the same hand!